In May of this year, I returned to Harbin completely driven by the nostalgia that had haunted me for a long time. I haven't been back for seven years. I haven't seen my old mother for seven years.

My brother, sister, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law have not yet left work, and my mother is the only one in the house. Mother is making dinner. The small kitchen had no windows, and a low-power lamp flickered faintly—the voltage was unstable. Stove smoke and pot vapor form a thick dim. In the darkness, my mother held the rice basin with trembling hands, like a phantom in the smoke, looking at me blankly. Obviously, my mother couldn't see my face clearly for a while.

I exclaimed, "Mom, I'm back!" and I was so excited.

"Yes...... "My mother always called me by my name when I was in elementary school, and this name was given to me by the household registration police according to the clan name when I was born. My mother never called me Xiaosheng, who changed my name after I went to middle school. As if she didn't like the name and didn't approve of her son's name. I don't know why. I didn't ask about it.

"Mom, it's me!" As soon as I got home, I naturally reverted to a northeastern accent in my own voice, which made me feel strange.

"Oh, oh......" Mother turned to find a place to put the pot.

I walked into the house, and as soon as I put down my bag, my mother followed, still holding the rice bowl in both hands. The kitchen was in a mess, and my mother probably didn't have a place to put pots.

I quickly took the rice bowl from my mother's hand. The back room is not much bigger than the kitchen, nor much brighter than the kitchen. There was only one table for things, and there were many cups, bowls, and children's toys piled up on the table. Three couples, three generations, eleven people, living in a low and dark space of just over 20 square meters, orderly and clean can only become a luxury. I turned 360 degrees in place, and finally put the rice basin on the bed.

"You...... Why don't we send a letter in advance, we can clean up our house......" Mother said apologetically, looking at me intently.

The mother was thinner, haggard, and older, and her face was very bad, sallow and gray. The eye disease has never been cured, and the eyes are red. The clothes were also quite dirty, and there was a pot of ash on the placket. The whole thing looked like a withered tree root, pulled out of the dirt for a short time.

I called "Mom" again, and my heart suddenly filled with sadness, and my throat felt like something was choking, and I couldn't speak. My mother raised a total of five of our children, and I was a bit of a good person - I became a writer, I was a candle in my mother's spiritual world, and I was a comfort to my mother's soul. But I am in Beijing, and I am the son who is the least filial to his mother. It can even be said that since I arrived in Beijing, I have never fulfilled the filial piety of a son to my mother. It's just that I send some money home every few months.

"Kid, you've lost a lot of weight...... Don't write so hard, Mom doesn't expect you to be famous, I just wish you good health, no illness or ......disaster," Mother said, turning sideways and wiping the corners of her red eyes with her dirty clothes.

"Mom, I'm just a little thinner, but I'm not seriously ill......," I lied to my mother. I tried to restrain myself from crying in front of my mother. "Really?......" Mother turned to look at me again. She let out a long sigh, and then whispered, "When you come back this time, you must go to see your aunt." I said, "I'll go see her in three or five days." The mother said, "No, you will go to see her tomorrow." She...... I'm afraid I don't have many days to live......" I couldn't help but froze. The mother said, "Your brothers and sisters have all gone to see her." Even your brother-in-law went to see her. But what she misses most is you, and she mentions you every time she writes to her...... Hard-working woman, mother's life is bitter enough, your aunt is more bitter than your mother's life......" "Auntie...... What serious illness did she have...... "My aunt is only in her forties, and I was a little skeptical of my mother's words, so I asked sneeringly.

"In March, your brothers and sisters took her to stay at home for a period of time, and took turns to accompany her to the hospital for check-ups, but nothing serious was found. But she is getting thinner and thinner day by day, she doesn't want to eat or drink, and she is so thin that she is almost left with bones...... Classmates and teachers, don't go to see it first, you must go to see your aunt first tomorrow. Mother said very melancholy.

I let out a soft "um".

Poor aunt!

A kind of desolation, a kind of pathos, permeated my heart.

I pretended to be tired and fell on the bed, my eyes moistened. In recent years, there has not been a single incident that has saddened me more than this. I didn't have an aunt. My aunt is not my aunt. When I was seven years old, my mother worked as a temporary worker on the railroad. Pick and lift, move stones and iron, unload coal and raise sand. Wherever the work is dirty and tiring, the temporary workers are assigned to work wherever they are, and men and women are equal. My mother left work late every day, and often came home with a black face and a body of dust.

At that time, our family had not yet moved to the "partial face" area and lived on Anping Street. The house, smaller than the one we live in now, is still dilapidated, and lacks light. The floor in the house is a foot lower than the ground outside. In order to prevent rainwater from entering the house on rainy days, a wooden plank was nailed to the threshold, and those who entered the house had to raise their feet. There are two layers of broken bricks stacked on the threshold, which is a step to step on. People who came to my house for the first time either had their heads hit by the door frame and picked up their bags, or they stepped on the empty "steps" and were startled. Although there are windows, half of them are buried in the ground. The window frames were torn out of shape by the sunken house and could not be opened. The broken glass is invisible, so it can't be invised, and it is pasted with brown paper. This is a private property. The landlord doesn't make it cheaper just because it doesn't look like a house at all. There are two rooms inside and outside, and the outside room is used as a kitchen in the summer. In the winter, in order to keep warm, the iron stove was moved into the back room, and our five children and their mother huddled on a kang in the back room, and the outside room enlarged cabbage, potatoes, turnips, water tanks, grain boxes, chopping wood, and coal buckets, and there was no room for it.

I remember it was a winter day, and it snowed heavily from daytime to dark. My mother got off work very late that day and brought back a stranger.

The mother's face was black as usual. "Bow your head, raise your feet high, settle slowly, and then drop slowly......" The mother came into the house first, led one of the man's hands, reminded him, and led the man into the house. Thanks to his mother's carefulness, this person was not touched on the head, nor was he startled. The man's face was darker than his mother's, so his age was indistinguishable. From the fact that his face was black, it is not difficult to conclude that the man worked as a temporary worker like his mother, and had unloaded coal with his mother. He wears the same dogskin hat as his mother, and his body is covered with a large cotton shoulder that is longer than his mother's knees. She wears the same cotton rubber shoes as her mother.

The mother took a broom from the kang and swept away the snowflakes from the man's body, saying, "You see, my house is in such tatters, and these are my children...... Shaosheng, pour us a wash......"

The only pair of eyes on the man's black face were clean, and his eyes were a little melancholy and a little restrained. She stood motionless in the doorway, clearly at a loss for a moment because my home was worse than she had imagined.

I scooped up most of the basin of cold water and gently placed it at her feet.

Seeing that there was no place in the house where she could wash her face calmly, she took up the basin without a sound, turned around and went to the outhouse.

"Lie on your stomach inside! Just such a kang, it's all full!" the mother shouted at her younger siblings. So the younger brothers and sisters shrank into the corner of the kang in a bunch.

"Let's sit on the edge of the kang and comb it. Her mother gently pushed her down on the edge of the kang.

I whispered, "Mom, shall I give you a hot meal?" The mother said, "I'll heat it myself." Pick two cabbages, wash a radish, and I'll make the soup......" The mother glanced at the big girl, sat next to her on the edge of the kang, pushed her shoulders, and asked, "Why don't you speak?" She just combed her long hair again and again, and didn't look up! The mother said, "If you dislike my family, I will only keep you for one night tonight, and tomorrow I will think of a way for you to see if I can find a good place to live and settle down...... If you are still willing to stay in my home, you will live for a long time, and I will not let you move out for a long time. Where I eat, you eat. Whoever I builds, you build......"

She still didn't say anything, she still didn't look up. The wooden comb, slowly combing through her long black hair, combed her long hair very smoothly. We were greatly disappointed to see her like this, and we guessed that she would not want to stay in a home like ours for long. While I was picking cabbage and washing turnips, I peeked at the big girl, and wished she would say, "I'll stay," or nod her head. But she was like a mute, and her head hung lower. When her mother saw that she still did not answer, her expression was a little embarrassed, so she slowly stood up and went to cut vegetables. "Eldest sister, how much do you charge me for the house every month?" she suddenly raised her head and asked her mother in a very small voice.

"Look at what you asked, what kind of house is not paid?" The mother stopped chopping vegetables, turned her face to look at her, and said, "The house is not mine, can I be a second landlord? If you want to live, I won't charge you a penny!"

On what I thought was a very handsome face, a smile of joy bloomed like a flower, and she lowered her head and said, "That...... I would like to stay for a long time......" and continued to comb my hair.

The mother was delighted and said, "But there must be a name in front of the children." You call me eldest sister, you are as old as my little sister, but unfortunately my little sister died. From now on, let the children call you Auntie, okay?"

"Hmm. "It's like a child's voice that says he's willing to listen to adults in the future. She put down her comb and began to braid it.

Mother said to us again, "Did you hear that?

"Auntie!" the younger siblings couldn't wait to cry out in unison. A few cats crawled up to her like cubs and called "Auntie" one after another.

She half-turned, looked at us, and smiled so cutely again.

I felt as if our little dilapidated house was suddenly full of light. In the midst of the shouts of "Auntie," my heart of a seven-year-old boy was filled with inexplicable excitement and excitement! From now on I will have an Auntie! And what an Auntie I like to watch! My wooden, ink-coated shell gun, my small box of villain books, my dozen or so petal glass balls, my little sparrow kept in a table drawer, all my precious things, are not worth this aunt! We have some kind of intimate relationship with someone other than a member of the family, and this is simply what life has to offer us!

In the past, after my mother got off work, if we had already eaten, she would never cook again, and would just eat a few bites of the food we left for her. That day, although my mother got off work late, and although we could all see that she was tired, she still held on and cut two cabbages finely and mixed them on a plate. Finely chop the radish and make a small half-pot of soup. He also shook off the white noodles in his pocket, and fried a few cakes with a lot of oil. My mother was reluctant to use up so much oil at once. It can be seen that my aunt, like her mother, is a person who does not hide twins or laziness in her work. Otherwise, why would they eat that big plate of mixed cabbage and drink up the half pot of soup?

After my mother and aunt finished eating, I silently packed up the dishes and chopsticks and went to scrub them. When I am happy, I will take the initiative to do what I am reluctant to do. Auntie wants to rush to scrub. Her mother stopped her and said, "In the future, when you intervene, you can't work hard today!"

Auntie laughed silently. I really can't get enough of my aunt's smiling face! She makes others happy when she laughs!

Then the mother said, "You can spend the night with me tonight, and tomorrow I will clean up the outhouse and make you a bunk." ”

Auntie nodded slightly. In our eyes, she is a big girl, an adult. In the eyes of her mother, she is clearly still a little girl, a child, and she looks so obedient in front of her mother.

Mother began to lay out the bed, and the younger siblings consciously squeezed together to make room for our aunt to fall. The quilts at home are very old. The white quilt is also very dirty. My mother was very hardworking and dismantled the bedding almost every other month, but she still couldn't make the whole family's bedding look clean. Because the kang is dirty. The kang is dirty because the three kang walls are dirty, and I don't know how much wall skin to fall down every day. And because our little bodies are dirty one by one. In the summer, when we were still cleaner, my mother used to put a large basin outside, pour a large basin of water for us to strip naked and bathe. And throughout the winter, we can't talk about bathing. After all, the younger siblings are very young, and they are completely immersed in the happiness of accidentally obtaining a good-looking aunt, and they are not ashamed of the dirty bedding. I'm seven years old, but I feel my face burn. For the first time, shame left an imprint on my self-esteem, and it was neither deep nor shallow.

I mixed half a basin of warm water, put it at my aunt's feet, and said politely to my aunt, "Auntie, please wash your feet!" "Ah......" My aunt looked at me as if taken aback, and then at her mother. The mother also said, "Wash your feet." The aunt said almost pleadingly: "How can I be like a young lady and let the child bring the footwash under my nose!" Eldest sister, you must tell the child, don't be so respectful to me in the future!" The mother smiled calmly and said, "What kind of respect, the child is just an aunt like you, who loves you from the bottom of her heart." Can't you see it?" The aunt said, "Sister, I'm not a wooden person, how can I not see it!" and looked at me again and asked, "Did you go to school?" I replied, "Yes." "What grade?" "Just got a first grade. "Then my aunt can help you study in the future, my aunt is a graduate of high school!" The beautiful smile was filled with a little pride. I couldn't help but laugh and said, "Okay." The mother continued: "Our Shaosheng can study and use skills, it is two bars, and we have won a certificate in the exam." "You should study hard, your father works in the field, your mother works as a temporary worker, and she has to pull you to grow up, I'm sorry for your mother if you don't study hard!" I nodded silently. The aunt said to her mother again, "Sister, you are really not easy!" The mother sighed a long sigh: "No, it's not easy! Sometimes I feel tired of life!" I retreated to the corner of the kang without a sound, took out the textbook from my school bag, took off my shoes, and lay down silently against the wall, turned towards the wall, and held the textbook to read. The mother urged the aunt: "Wash your feet, I unloaded coal for a whole day today, but I'm tired enough!" The aunt said that she would not use the basin of foot washing water first, but in the end, it was her mother who washed it first, and she washed it. After washing, he still sat on the edge of the kang with his bare feet down, and he didn't take off his clothes on the kang for a long time. Mother urged again. My aunt said, "My nephew reads!" I said, tucking my textbook under my pillow. As usual, my younger siblings and I would fall asleep as soon as we got under the covers.

But that day, we didn't feel sleepy. Like my younger siblings, I lay on the bed, staring intently at my aunt. I can't get enough of it. The mother urged the aunt to sleep again. The aunt lowered her head and whispered, "Sister, I'll ...... when the children are asleep In front of so many little nephews...... Strange and embarrassing ......" Mother patted us on the head one by one and commanded loudly: "Close your eyes, close your eyes!"

The one of us closed our eyes, the other opened our eyes again, and the novelty of this aunt was so excited that we couldn't sleep. As if I was afraid that when I woke up, my aunt would no longer exist.

"These children, they are really disobedient!" the mother pretended to be angry, glanced at her aunt, couldn't help but plop up, and pulled out the light. Suddenly the five fingers in the room were missing. In the darkness, I only heard the sound of my aunt slowly undressing.

After a moment of silence, I listened to my aunt and mother whispering: "Eldest sister, those men who work with us are so bad that they always tease me with some intrusive words. "Just ignore them. The more you take it, the happier they will be! There is nothing good!" "I don't dare to get angry, for fear of offending them, and they will bully me in the future." "Don't be afraid of them, whoever dares to bully you, the eldest sister can't spare him! Don't look at your eldest sister as an honest person, but she is not bullied. You are my sister-in-law, bullying you is bullying me......" That's it, my aunt stayed in our house. In this way, we have an aunt who is not close, but closer than close. Later, I learned intermittently from my mother that my aunt was not only a high school graduate, but also a member of the Communist Youth League. She is a farmer in Shuangcheng County, more than 100 miles away from Harbin, and her family life is quite difficult. I heard that Harbin was recruiting young and strong temporary workers, so I came to Harbin alone. Before moving to our house, she spent the night at the train station.

Because of this aunt, we have many obvious changes. The first is that we don't mess around in front of or behind the house anymore. My aunt helped us build a simple latrine nearby. We have also become fond of cleanliness, because my aunt loves cleanliness very much. We dragged two broken boxes out from under the bunk in the back room and carried them to the outhouse, one at the end of the other, as bed legs. In the dark night, my mother and I dragged back two discarded springboards from the construction site from outside, cut them off, and built a very solid "bed" for my aunt in the outhouse. Cabbage and radishes were piled under the "bed". The outhouse was ventilated everywhere, and thick frost hung on the walls. My siblings and I scraped the frost off with a spatula and stuffed the broken cotton balls into the airy crevices. We were afraid that my aunt would sleep cold at night, so we had to move the stove from the inner room to the outer room. A hole was cut in the wall of the partition, and two chimneys were added, and they were pierced into the inner room. In this way, the inner room is not only just as warm, but also spacious. When my aunt didn't live in my house, my mother couldn't think of it and didn't have the heart to do it. I can't even think of it as a child. When my aunt came to my house, I didn't think of a lot of things I should do without my mother's instructions. After doing these kinds of things, our homes have changed a little like we did.

A month before the Spring Festival, my mother suddenly became as if she had something on her mind. One day, my mother secretly told me behind my aunt's back that she was afraid that her father would come home to visit relatives during the Spring Festival and would be unhappy because of a strange woman living in the house. I understood my mother's thoughts, and I was secretly sad about it. Father never needs an aunt, it's no wonder he doesn't lose his temper!

My mother asked me to write a letter to my father. The letter told his father that everything was fine at home, and hoped that his father would not come back to visit the family during the Spring Festival and would come back in the summer. talked about several reasons why visiting home in summer is better than visiting home in the Spring Festival.

Naturally, my aunt didn't know, and asked my mother almost every day: "When will the eldest brother-in-law come back?"

My mother said, "It's not certain that I won't come back to visit my family during the Spring Festival this year." ”

"Eldest sister, write a letter and urge my eldest brother-in-law to come back and visit my house! Hasn't my eldest brother-in-law visited my house for more than two years?

The mother said lightly, "I don't want to." ”

The aunt smiled: "The eldest sister deceives. Even if you don't want to, the kids don't want to?"

The mother said, "Maybe the children have forgotten about him!"

When the younger siblings heard this, they shouted in protest: "I haven't forgotten, I haven't forgotten, we have been looking forward to my father coming back to visit the house for a long time!"

The mother said no more.

My father replied that he would not visit his home during the Spring Festival, and when I finished reading the letter, my younger brothers and sisters began to cry. My mother and I looked at each other, silent. I felt the same mood as my mother, feeling both settled and guilty.

The sister-in-law condemned her father: "How can there be such a person, he hasn't visited his home for more than two years, and he has a lot of children and wives, and if he doesn't come back, he won't come back! Sister, let me write a letter for you to ask him if he still has this home in his heart!"

The mother pretended to be angry and said, "Don't write to him! He has no home in his heart, and we don't have him in our hearts from now on!"

My aunt's father, an honest and honest farmer, came from the countryside to the city to find my aunt and wanted to take my aunt back for the Spring Festival. When my aunt didn't go back, she said to her father: "This Spring Festival is the first Spring Festival since my eldest sister and I met, and my eldest brother-in-law is no longer visiting the house. ”

My aunt's father stayed at my house for two days, and I couldn't force my aunt to go back with him, so I left disappointed. Before leaving, he told his mother that he had entrusted his aunt to her.

Although our father did not come back to visit the family, we had a very happy Spring Festival. Happiness is given to us by my aunt.

We also sent the king of the stove, also for the ancestors, also ate New Year's dumplings, also set off firecrackers, and my aunt also helped my mother fry several dishes. Bought a bottle of wine at a bargain price.

When eating New Year's dumplings, my mother put an extra small plate and a pair of chopsticks on the table.

I said, "Mom, there's one more person." ”

The mother said, "Not much, that's your father's." Your dad hasn't spent the Spring Festival with the whole family for several years, so let's just think that this Spring Festival is with us!"

The aunt glanced at her mother, poured two glasses of wine, handed one cup to her mother, and raised the other cup with both hands, and said solemnly to her mother: "Eldest sister, you drink this cup for my eldest brother-in-law, eldest brother-in-law, I salute you!" Instantly, his face was as red as a peach blossom.

Mother also drank it dry in one gulp......

As soon as the Spring Festival passed, the weather gradually warmed up. Fast forward to April, and we're having a hard time. Living with our family, in addition to my aunt, there is also an uncountable huge family - the bed bug family. They reproduce by drinking our blood. My younger siblings and I were bitten and rolled on the kang every night, and rows of big bumps were bitten on our bodies. The little sister was bitten and cried every night and couldn't sleep. I was looking for joy in my pain, and made up a riddle for my aunt to guess: The sun set and the west mountain was dark, the red child goblin went up the mountain, and he wanted to eat Tang monk meat, and Zhu Bajie's rake scratched happily.

Auntie obviously guessed, but she didn't say anything. Just like a doctor, he dipped cotton balls in salt water and wiped the knots on his younger brothers and sisters. The aunt sighed and said to her mother, "Sister, the children are so pitifully bitten, we have to think of a way!" The mother looked at us with distressed eyes and said, "I have thought of many ways, but I can't cure it!" The next day, the aunt didn't go to work because she was sick. After my mother left, my aunt said to me, "Come with me and do something." I didn't ask much, so I left home with my aunt. My aunt took me to the savings bank and took money from her passbook. The saver said strangely, "I just saved it yesterday, and I will take it today!" and the aunt said, "There is an emergency." "Twenty dollars have been taken?" "All have been taken." Then my aunt took me to rent a trolley, and I followed her to the grocery market and bought two straw mats.

When she returned home, she went to the construction site and asked for a bucket of electric lime. Then, my aunt instructed us to move all the broken furniture out of the house, and she started to soak the electric lime and mixed several packs of "Liuliu" powder with the electric lime. I wanted to help her, but she wouldn't allow it, for fear of burning my hands.

My aunt wrapped a "brush" with an old cloth alone and meticulously brushed the inside and outside walls. I boiled several large pots of boiling water and poured them into the cracks of the broken furniture.

Before my mother got off work, we had cleaned up the house again, and we had new straw mats on the kang. Due to the dampness of the walls, after brushing in many places, they turned yellow instead of white, like patches of unsightly yellow spots. My aunt really had an idea, so she went to the store and bought several pictures and pasted them in those places. After my mother got off work, when she entered the house, she was stunned and couldn't speak for a long time. My aunt's hands were burned with a lot of blisters, and she looked at her mother and smiled. The mother wants to buy money for the straw mat for the aunt. My aunt said that she wouldn't accept anything. The mother said, "It's not easy for you to save some money, and there are still old parents at home, you have to take it!" The aunt got angry and said, "Sister, if you want to force me to take it, I'll move out!" The mother held her aunt's burned hands and burst into tears. That night, we slept soundly...... The landlord sued his mother to the street. said that his mother was obsessed with money, so she recruited tenants at home without permission, and became a "second landlord". When the street officials heard this, they went to the house and questioned the mother, who gave an explanation, but they did not believe it. "How can there be such a kind person, who is not related to him, and gives the house to others to live in!" they expressed their doubts in front of their mother.

The mother was angry and said, "If you don't believe it, just let it be!" Later, when the aunt was at home, they came to "investigate" to the aunt. The aunt replied to them: "If you want to say that my eldest sister took me in as a 'second landlord', that is the chimsical idea of a person who is obsessed with money!" They still didn't believe it, and they thought that it must be the right words that the mother and the aunt colluded to discuss in advance. So he encouraged the landlord to file a lawsuit in court. Soon after, the mother was summoned by the court. It was the first time in my mother's life that she was forced to deal with the law. After all, my aunt was a rural girl, and she had never experienced anything, so she was very uneasy, and said to her mother, "Sister, I'd better move out!" As soon as my younger siblings and I heard my aunt say that she was going to sleep at the train station, we were all anxious and shouted, "Auntie, don't move away!" "Mom, don't let my aunt leave our house no matter what!" The mother looked at my aunt and said, "Do you hear what the children say? You are not allowed to move away! As soon as you move away, the thing that disappeared will also come true! I am not afraid of the court if you are reasonable to go all over the world! If you want to go to sleep in the train station, don't call me eldest sister again!" When my mother came back from the court, she had a proud attitude of returning victoriously. The aunt asked, "Sister, have you won?" The mother said, "Is it reasonable, can you still lose?" The aunt said, "Thank God, after you left, my heart was full of ......" The mother said, "I have never seen the world!" The aunt asked again: "Sister, how did the court ask? How did you answer?" The mother said lightly: "What are you doing with this, it's not interesting! The comrades of the court told the landlord in front of me that, first, his lawsuit was groundless. Second, he is not allowed to embarrass us, let alone drive us to move, unless we voluntarily want to move. He also criticized him for only charging for the house and not repairing the house......"

The aunt said admiringly, "Sister, you are really good!" The mother said, "Okay, I went to court with my breath in my breath! If it weren't for the fact that people had sued us, I would rather swallow my anger." On the contrary, the aunt became arrogant, and said angrily: "Eldest sister, I will accompany you to find the landlord, and I will hurt him in front of him, and vent my anger for you!" The mother said: "We have to give the landlord three points, forget it! Let's add two yuan to the landlord for the house, so that he will not have trouble in the future and cause trouble." The aunt listened, looked at her mother, and was speechless for a long time....... after the "May Day", the weather was warmer. The dirty water splashed in the winter formed layers of dirty ice on the garbage heap in front of and behind the house. During the day, it was sunburned and trickled down the garbage heap, muddy the road and emitted an unpleasant smell. One night, my aunt put her hands behind her back and said to my mother, "Sister, what do you think the family sent me?" and my mother asked, "Are they shoes?" The mother thought for a while, and then asked, "Clothes?" The aunt said, "Sister, you have to always think about what you wear, and you will never guess!" The mother smiled: "Is that something to eat?" "It's also food, but you can't eat it right away!" The aunt smiled and stretched out her hands to her mother, "It's rapeseed, and there are flower seeds!" She poured the small cloth bag in her hand towards the kang, lined up one small paper bag after another, and said, " Look, this is cabbage seeds, this is spinach seeds, this is rapeseed, ah, cucumber seeds and carob seeds, big sister, you see these are flower seeds, broom plums, moon season incense, henna...... There are more than 10 kinds of them!"

My mother asked, "Why did your family remember to send you rapeseed seeds?"

My aunt replied, "I wrote to ask for it to be sent from home." I'm going to renovate those garbage heaps with my nephews!" The mother said, "You still have this mind, after all, it is a girl's heart!" The aunt said, "If you live, you have to think of ways to make your life comfortable!" The next day was Sunday. My aunt led us to level the garbage heaps and plant vegetables and flowers one by one. After a while, the garbage heaps turned into green hills. By July and August, the beans and cucumbers have climbed the shelves and the flowers have bloomed. The front and back of our little broken earth house are like a small garden, red is red, green is green, purple is purple, yellow is yellow, colorful, pleasing to the eye, very beautiful. It attracted butterflies and dragonflies, as well as women workers in the wire factory. They come in groups to see the flowers during their lunch break and after work, and they want to spend them. The aunt was very generous, satisfied with everyone, and won the favor of those female workers.

How is it that two women, with a few children, as if they were isolated from the city, live so lovingly and interestingly in the back of a tall building, in a small dilapidated house? Every night, my younger siblings and I are no longer confined to the house. Cushion a wooden board or something, sit around my mother and aunt, and listen to the two women we are dearest and dearest in the world. Appreciate our greenery, our flowers, our beauty, our "Grand View Garden". Almost none of us enjoyed the good things. And the beauty we are facing is a rural girl, which was brought to us by our aunt. In the refreshing fragrance, in the vibrant and colorful, our weak souls experience a certain understanding, carry out naïve and serious thinking, thinking about what is the beauty of the world, what is gratitude, and why do we need to be grateful......

At that moment, I was even more convinced that my aunt was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

The topic that my aunt and mother talked about the most was the word "regular". What other topic would fascinate the two women who work as temporary workers more than "turning a regular job"? My aunt and my mother are yearning for a regular job almost all the time. This yearning often makes the aunt happy, and often makes the mother's face overflow with a rare brilliance full of confidence in life. I know that this is the happiness of my aunt and my mother.

One evening, I sat next to my aunt, kneeling on my aunt's lap, fiddling with my aunt's long braids, unwrapping, braiding, braiding, dismantling, thinking it was weird and funny. My mother looked at me and then at my aunt, sighed, and said, "I have never picked up anything when I have grown so big, and I can't imagine that what I have picked up now is more valuable than gold." ”

The aunt innocently asked, "Sister, what good things have you picked up?" The mother said, "I picked up a sister for myself and an aunt for the child!" The aunt looked at her mother for a long time, and suddenly snuggled up to her mother and whispered, "Sister, I guarantee that you will never lose it again." The mother whispered: "You say so, can you still live in my house for the rest of your life? In the future, you will not get married and start a family?" The mother reprimanded me again: "I am really ignorant, the eldest is not small, and he is still pretending to be a child, while playing, don't rely on your aunt's side!" The aunt just laughed. I blushed and was embarrassed. But my aunt gently put one arm around my neck, didn't let me go, and said, "Shaosheng, when you grow up, you are admitted to university, and you will become a cadre or something in the future, you won't disown my aunt, right?" I replied loudly: "If I don't recognize my aunt, the sky will hit five thunders!" Aunt Gege laughed. Mother couldn't help but laugh. I felt that my aunt's arm was so soft, and I said silently in my heart: "Auntie, auntie, how much I love my mother, how much I love you!" I couldn't help but put my face on my aunt's arm......

One day, after work, my mother and aunt were depressed. It turned out that my aunt had turned positive. The mother, on the other hand, was sent home because of the downsizing of temporary workers, and she was not allowed to go to work the next day. It can be seen that the mother is very sad and disappointed, and her self-esteem has been greatly bruised. I was also sad and depressed. Living in poverty made me understand early on what my mother's loss of job meant for the family's life.

My aunt said to her mother: "Eldest sister, you are too honest! When do you work less than others? So many people who hide treachery and cunning have turned right, why did they send you home with a word? Isn't this a blatant bully? I'll find them to reason with you tomorrow! If you don't turn positive, I won't do it!"

"I don't want you to hold this grievance for me!" said the mother very sternly. It was the first time for my mother to speak to my aunt in such a stern tone. The aunt was stunned and looked at her mother in a daze. The mother softened her tone and said, "Silly girl, you came from the countryside to the city, and you finally found a job, and now you have become a regular worker, your parents should be more happy for you! You must not hold this kind of grievance for me, and you may also be fired if you do that! You can become a regular sister, and I am happy for you in my heart, eldest sister......" The mother couldn't go on. "Eldest sister...... aunt suddenly threw herself into her mother's arms and cried profusely...... Soon after my aunt became a regular, she moved to the collective dormitory of the workers in the factory. For my aunt's departure, we and my mother are reluctant. But when I thought that my aunt was moving to a better place than our house after all, I didn't say anything about keeping it. My aunt is also reluctant to cling to us and my mother. On the day she moved out, she cried like a child again...... Although my aunt moved away from our house, she did not forget us. Almost every Sunday, they come to my house. My aunt is still our aunt who is closer than my aunt.

My father wrote that he had visited his home that summer, but he did not return until two days before the National Day. After I came back, I naturally heard a lot of words from our mouths about "little aunt" and "little aunt", and inevitably asked my mother: "Where did you recognize such a girl? Why did you become the children's aunt?"

The mother replied, "It doesn't cost you anything, and you have to take care of it?" The father said, "Of course, I don't allow any irrelevant women to come to my house and influence my children!" The mother also said, "Don't you allow a good influence?" The father said, "As long as I don't like her, I won't let her come!" The mother said, "If you come, will you really get her out?" The father said, "Of course!" The mother said, "You ask the children if they agree?" The father said, "Do you dare to stop me?" The mother snorted and stopped arguing with the father. Privately, he told me, "Go see your aunt tonight, and tell her not to come this month, and come back when your father goes back to the northwest." "After dinner, I ran away from my father's eyes and left the house. "Why don't you let my aunt see your father? I replied honestly: "Mom is afraid that Dad won't like you, so you go and kick you out." "That's the case......," the aunt thought for a moment and said, "Then you go back and tell your mother, I won't go." ”

My aunt still wants to keep me playing. I was afraid that it would be too late to go back, so my father interrogated me and left in a hurry.

Unexpectedly, early the next morning, my aunt appeared at my door wearing a very beautiful floral shirt and a green skirt. The mother was about to go out of the house, one foot in the door, one foot outside the door, when she saw the aunt, she couldn't help but be stunned, and said unexpectedly: "Yo! Why are you here?" "My eldest brother-in-law has traveled thousands of miles to visit the house, and I will come to see him!" said the aunt and walked into the house. The mother also quickly followed the house. When the younger brothers and sisters saw their aunt, they shouted affectionately: "Auntie, auntie......" surrounded the aunt. The father was shaving his face in front of the broken mirror, and when he saw his aunt in the mirror, he didn't turn around, ignored it, and continued to shave his face. The mother said, "Dad, the children's aunt is here." Dad had to say "hmm", but still didn't look at the aunt. The mother had no choice but to dilute her father's indifference with her own enthusiasm, gently pressed the aunt to sit on the kang, took the bag in her hand and put it aside, and said reproachfully: "Buy things for the children again! How much money do you make? The father had finished shaving his face, put away the razor, still didn't say a word to the aunt, and went to the outhouse to wash his face with the basin. The mother hurried after the father to the outhouse. We all looked at my aunt uneasily. My aunt was laughing happily with us. After a while, I saw my mother push my father in the outhouse and push him into the house. After my father was pushed into the house, he sat on the edge of the kang and reluctantly accosted my aunt and said, "Rest today?" My aunt stopped teasing us, looked at my father, smiled slightly, and said, "Brother-in-law, I don't think you look like a person with a strong temper!" My father said, "Who said I was a great person?" My aunt said, "Sister, she is worried that I am coming, and you will kick me out." The father said, "There is no shadow!"

My aunt said, "I wonder if my eldest brother-in-law won't treat me like this!"

The aunt asked again: "Brother-in-law, will you go back to the northeast from the northwest and take the train for a few days?"

The father said, "Three days and three nights." ”

"The northwest wind and sand are big, right?"

"It's so big, it can scrape people away!"

"Does it snow in winter?"

"It's snowing. ”

"I heard that there is a shortage of water in the northwest?"

"There's no more water scarce than in the northwest!" We walked in front of the water-carrying car, and the old cow followed, licking the tank with his tongue. I went out more than ten miles with him. The old cow was so thirsty that he burst into tears when he saw the water. Some old cows are dying of thirst, because there is no water in their bodies, and they can't pick off the cowhide...... "Speaking of the Great Northwest, my father's conversation box opened, and whoever wanted to stop it couldn't stop it, and they talked endlessly. My aunt's eyes widened, as if she were listening to some novel story, and listened intently...... On that day, my father did not drive my aunt away from home. That day, my aunt had lunch and dinner at our house, and stayed until dark before going back...... After my aunt left, my father said to my mother, "Her aunt is not bad, she is really a rural girl." The mother said angrily, "It's really not true, I don't need you to praise!" The father lowered his head and smiled heavily...... When my father went back to the northwest, he also gave an old watch he was wearing to his aunt. After my aunt came to the city for more than a year, her face turned white. Eyes lit up. I love to laugh even more. The temperament is more gentle. The figure is more slim. It's getting prettier. Some of the boys in the wire factory often stopped me and asked with a hippie smile, "Hey, little one, who are you with that big pigtail that often comes to your house?" I replied to them proudly: "It's my aunt!" "You ask her, is it okay for me to be your uncle?" I couldn't see if it was a good word, so I scolded them. Instead of being annoyed, they laughed.

The hundreds of young female workers in the wire factory, in my opinion, are not as beautiful as my aunt. I think I certainly have good reason to be proud in front of others. I remember that it was a Sunday in the early summer of the following year, and my aunt came to my house again. He wore a brand-new poplin shirt, a pair of cappling pants, and a new pair of leather shoes. She looked especially beautiful that day.

My aunt never dresses up too much. Even if the flower clothes are worn on her, they look plain and plain. The mother was silent and looked at her thoughtfully for a long time. The aunt was a little embarrassed by her mother, and lowered her head and asked in a low voice, "Sister, why are you looking at me so stupidly?" The mother said, "I see that you are getting better and better." The aunt slowly raised her head and said, "I used to be told that I was good-looking, but I didn't believe it. Now I think I'm better-looking!" Mother said, "Praise yourself, are you ashamed?" The aunt said, "Originally, washing your face in the city, using warm water, making soap, can people not become white and pure?" Mother smiled: "But too!" Suddenly asked again: "The last time you went home, didn't you go back to make a marriage?" The aunt blushed and said loudly: "No! No, no!" The mother said, "No, I can't care about you!" The aunt said, "Why can't you care?" You are my eldest sister, I am your sister!" The mother said, "Then let me ask you, do you want to find your mother-in-law's family in the countryside or in the city?" Seeing that her mother was asking seriously, the aunt lowered her head and pondered for a while, and then asked her mother, "What do you say, eldest sister?" The mother said, "Of course you should look for it in the city." You're from the city now, didn't the factory leave your account behind for you?" The mother said, "Then you should look for it in the city!" and the aunt said, "Sister, I will listen to you." The mother said, "But I hope that if you fancy someone, you can bring it to the eldest sister and help you with the staff." After all, the eldest sister has eaten salty salt for a few more years than you, what kind of man, at a glance, you can see whether the character is good or bad. The aunt lowered her head and was silent for a long time. The mother asked, "Can't you trust the eldest sister?" The aunt was silent for a while, and then whispered: "Eldest sister, you said that a man is really good to a woman, how can you know it?"

The mother thought for a moment and asked, "Which man do you have a crush on?" The aunt raised her head and argued again and again: "No, no." The mother said, "A man is really good to a woman, others can't see it, only this woman knows best in her heart!" In autumn, the water level of the Songhua River rose sharply after days of heavy rain, several meters above the market. That year's flood was the first serious flood after 1936. Fortunately, the flood control work was carried out early, and the flood did not enter the urban area. Adults across the city, both men and women, have been mobilized to fight day and night in batches on flood control dams. There were many days when my aunt didn't come to my house, and my mother said that she must have participated in the flood fight.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, many people spend their time on the flood control dam. Jiang Hong was finally defeated. Mother said that my aunt would come in a few days. Our mother and we are eagerly looking forward to it. I haven't seen my aunt for more than a month, so I don't want to mention how much I miss her. Although Jiang Hong was defeated, the autumn rain did not stop. Late one night, it was stormy and thundering outside. Lightning shines through the low, sloping panes of light in our ruined house. Our mother and we were both lying down, but we hadn't fallen asleep yet. Suddenly, I seemed to hear a soft knock on the door. I said, "Mom, there's a knock on the door." The mother said, "In the middle of the night, how can anyone come!" I said with certainty: "Mom, it's a knock at the door, you listen!" The mother listened for a while, and sure enough, it was a knock at the door. But the mother did not dare to go down to the ground and open the door. The knock on the door rang again. "Eldest sister...... "We all heard the voice of my aunt. "Come on," ...... mother sat up at once. I couldn't wait to jump off the ground and open the door. Sure enough, it was my aunt, she didn't hold an umbrella or wear a raincoat, and she was drenched all over her body. Her face was so pale, and her clothes and pants were covered with mud, apparently slipped. The mother also went down to the ground with her clothes on. My younger siblings woke up, and our mother and I looked at my aunt in amazement. "You...... Why did you suddenly ......" Mother was astonished. The aunt stood straight in front of her mother, and the burden in her hand fell heavily on her arm as if it had just been fished out of the water. The rain ran down her hair, down her pale cheeks, down the placket of her breasts, and in an instant beside her clay shoes. Her eyes, as if also covered by the rain and mist, looked at her mother in confusion.

"Eldest sister, you ...... Take me back...... Stop, okay......" said a sluggish sentence from between her two frozen purple lips.

"What's not going to happen! change your wet clothes first...... Mother immediately took one of her hands and led her to the outhouse. Then the mother went back to the back room, opened the broken box, picked out a few pieces of her own clothes, hugged the futon and pillow, and went to the outhouse again.